How Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants Were Chosen

A list of Asia’s 50 best restaurants that came out last week raised eyebrows across the continent, including in India. To us in India, the rankings didn’t look right, with many of our favorite restaurants absent from the list.

How were the Asian rankings compiled? The organizers pulled them from the same pool of votes used for the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, says Leisa Tyler, chairwoman for Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines for the Asia’s Top 50 list. There was no separate regional ballot limited to votes from Asian food-industry experts. Instead, the Asia list was culled from votes by more than 900 restaurateurs, chefs, food writers and industry insiders from all over the world.

Asia comprises six of the 27 voting regions under the World’s 50 Best list. Judges include locals who come from the countries they represent. “It’s not just foreigners voting,” Ms. Tyler said.

Every region is assigned 35 judges, who each vote for seven of their favorite restaurants for the list. Three of the restaurants must be from within the region they represent, while the remaining four should be from other regions. The restaurants with the most votes have the highest rankings.

Ms. Tyler said the ranking is “an industry list, not a consumer list,” and called it a reflection of current trends and business travel patterns for those who work in the culinary sector.

“Where our judges are travelling the most is where you’ll get the most influx of restaurants [on the list],” Ms. Tyler noted. “If you’re Singaporean, you probably go to Tokyo, Hong Kong or London each year, but you may not go to Korea or Taiwan.”

These travel biases lead to many places being left excluded, Ms. Tyler explained.